It is known to provide a trim component for a vehicle interior configured to provide an opening for deployment of an airbag from a chute through the opening.
The interior environment of the automobile is directly related to feelings of the driver and passengers, and for the interior, emphases are laid on the sense of touch, the hand feeling, the comfort, the ornamental value, etc. A semi-rigid foam flexible instrument panel may comprise polyurethane foam filled between a skin and a substrate, which may improve the sense of touch, and also bring about a comfortable and luxurious feeling. Such an instrument panel may absorb energy, so it is mostly used in the medium-and-high grade automobiles. As people have increasingly higher requirements for the appearances, functions and safety of the automotive interior parts, the demand for the airbag type instrument panel increases, and instrument panels are designed as seamless airbag instrument panels which have no visible attachment line and can ensure the deployment of an airbag. An airbag tearing line may be made in an airbag region on the reverse side of an instrument panel to ensure that the airbag can deploy from the instrument panel.
Skin material of an automobile instrument panel may be brittle at a low temperature, and mechanical performance may also be degraded after long-term aging. Due to these factors, during low-temperature airbag deployment, the skin and foam of a seamless airbag instrument panel may be broken and separate. It would be advantageous to continuously improve low temperature performance of an airbag door cover panel/plate for an automobile.
It is known to introduce a formula of slush-molding skin powder and a manufacturing method. It is known to add a modified plasticizer such as linear trimellitate, modified adipate, heat stabilizer, light stabilizer, etc. into a PVC suspension resin, and blend them in a high-speed blending device to obtain a formula of modified slush-molded powder. The glass transition temperature can be decreased to −50 deg C., the mechanical properties may remain suitable after a long-term aging test, and there may be no debris after low temperature airbag deployment. The process may be complex, and a special blending device may be needed besides the conventional automobile interior product molding process, which may increase the product cost.
It is known to introduce a formula of slush-molding skin powder and a manufacturing method. It is known to add a partially crosslinked polyolefin elastomer into the slush-molding powder. The glass transition temperature can be decreased to −60 deg C., the mechanical properties may remain suitable after a long-term aging test, and there may be no debris after low temperature airbag deployment. The process may be complex, and a special blending device may be needed besides the conventional automobile interior product molding process, which may increase the product cost.
Conventional airbag door cover panels/plates for automobiles may have poor low temperature performances, and in order to improve low temperature performance, the raw material may be modified, which may increase equipment investment, and lengthen the production cycle.
It would be advantageous to provide an improved vehicle interior component. It would also be advantageous to provide a trim component for a vehicle interior configured to provide improved performance in low temperature airbag deployments.